–Joy Harjo, Muskogee Creek poet

People are angry. I don’t just mean activists – it’s our “job” to be angry – I mean everybody. Unfortunately, many don’t know where to direct that anger and some haven’t even admitted that there’s a problem. But if you were to catch someone at the right moment, over a beer or glass of wine, alone in their cars with the radio off, on a night when they can’t sleep, off-guard, you’d get an earful.

The work of an activist is to harness all those justifiable negative emotions – anger, despair, hopelessness – and channel them to positive action. But for most people, it’s difficult to get a handle on the big picture issues that have such an influence on their daily lives. When one is trying to energize a movement around national and international issues, the most productive exhortation is to “make it local.”

For those of us in the social justice movement of Sonoma County, that opportunity was offered up on a platinum platter when bankster/thief Sandy Weill came to town in the guise of benevolent philanthropist. Weill dropped a cool $12 million on Sonoma State University and the school’s president returned the favor in the form of an honorary degree.

The result? A perfect forum. The Sonoma State University graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 12 offered students, professors, and local activists a golden opportunity to demonstrate their outrage at this shameful “transaction,” and to educate thousands about why it was wrong. A Coalition was formed; media coverage was assured.

In bestowing a Doctorate of Humane Letters on Sanford Weill, former CEO and Chairman of Citigroup, SSU President Rubin Armiñana asked the assembled students, families and residents of Sonoma County to ignore how Weill came to have so much money and to believe that ill-gotten gains can be called “philanthropy.” The Coalition said “not so fast!”

Sandy Weill has said that he retired from Citigroup because he needed to fulfill his “deal with God” by giving away a sizeable portion of his wealth. He failed to mention that the money he would be dispensing was obtained through a pact with the devil. (For details on his crimes, see shameonssu.org)

None of this bothered Armiñana. He acknowledged that Weill had some part in the economic crisis, but said “We are all sinners. That is part of the human condition.”

All of Sandy Weill’s corporate “sins” are public record, but not many people knew about them. Here’s how they found out.

In March of 2011, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that Joan and Sandy Weill had donated $12 million to the Green Music Center, calling the Weills “nationally recognized philanthropists.” I did some quick research and was amazed that the explosive truth about Weill and his responsibility for the financial crisis was so easy to find, right under our noses.

I submitted an OpEd to the Press Democrat, in which I called Weill a thief, not a philanthropist. I contacted the paper every day and said I would continue to do so until they published the piece. In early April, they relented. It was very well-received by the progressive community, but there it ended.

Six months later, the Occupy movement burst upon the scene. Sandy Weill was a ready-made target for the movement, but I didn’t see his name anywhere. Most of the talk was about Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. Weill was one of the first executives to hire a public relations company to protect his image and it had served him well.

But I work at the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County and we’re on Sonoma State’s press release email list. In late April 2012, we were informed that the university was awarding degrees to Weill and his wife. I had turned my back to Henry Kissinger in 1969 when Brown University awarded him a degree. I knew what I wanted to see and I knew that the Peace & Justice Center couldn’t be the focus of that work, nor could the local Occupy groups. That work had to come from within the Sonoma State community if we wanted it to have real traction.

I contacted Peter Phillips, professor of Sociology, and Shepherd Bliss, lecturer in Humanities. Eight people came to our first meeting, nine days before the graduation, to plan a protest. We dubbed it “Day of Shame on SSU.” By the next day, we had a website (shameonssu.org) and then our first press release. By our second meeting, we’d grown to twenty-five people with more on our email list. We got a Facebook page.

The amount of press coverage we received was an activist’s dream. Peter and Shepherd wrote OpEds which were immediately printed. The protest was covered for four days in the Press Democrat and Armiñana felt forced to respond. Letters to the editor favored our position. Our commentary appeared on numerous internet sites and there were interviews on many radio stations. The last issue for the semester of the SSU student newspaper, Sonoma State Star, carried the headline “Day of Shame at Sonoma State University.” Copies mysteriously disappeared overnight from the campus, to reappear when the faculty advisor formally complained. The faculty senate and the staff’s union weighed in on the controversy.

We issued a second press release declaring our commitment to nonviolence and our intention to protest Mr. Weill with back turning and silence and to honor the students.

On the day of the graduation, about fifty activists, including numerous SSU alumni, fanned out across the campus and handed out 4,000 explanatory flyers to a crowd of 10,000. To our delight, they were not dropped on the ground. We had the opportunity to speak with many people and received more favorable responses than negative.

When the degree was finally presented, close to 100 graduating students stood up and turned their backs to the podium. Many were in the highly visible second row. They were joined by faculty members on stage, and more than fifty people, organizers and the general public, in the audience.

One of the graduating students had written to the commencement speaker, Marc Lamont Hill. Mr. Hill did not respond, but he gave a barnstorming speech enumerating the sins of Sandy Weill (without mentioning his name), calling out the business graduates to do things differently, and asking the students to stand up for what is right even when others disapprove. He got a standing ovation and our profound gratitude.

Sandy Weill’s cover has been blown. The campaign to let the Weills know they are unwelcome in this county will continue and that will be our local hook for what is actually a global story – the story of an elite which is destroying everything we value.

Equally important, this rapidly convened coalition brought SSU students and faculty together with Occupy activists from Santa Rosa, Sebastopol Petaluma and Healdsburg for a successful action. We have owned our anger and discovered our strength.

There will be more opportunities for this group of people, many of whom were strangers a couple of weeks ago, to continue their work of changing the world by changing their community – a local community where more and more people can begin to realize that they are not alone in their anger. And that we are on their side.

The whirlwind is getting stronger.

by Susan Lamont

He emphasized the need to stand up for what is right, even if you are criticized. During this speech, Ruben Armiñano and Sandy Weill sat quietly and listened.

That set the stage for the silent protest that followed. When the honorary degree was presented, over a hundred people, including serveral dozen graduating students, many in the first few rows, stood up, removed their hats and hung their heads in shame. Witnesses say six faculty on the stage joined in as well.

The ceremony was not disrupted in any other way as some students had feared. As a result of this protest, tens of thousands have been made aware of this shame that SSU has brought upon itself – and hopefully this outrage will never be repeated.

VIDEO OF THE GRADUATION CEREMONY:  Click Here

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/sonoma-state-students-protest-former-citigroup-ceo/nN4m5/

Signs will visible before and after the ceremonies and during the silent rallies BUT NOT brought anywhere near the ceremony itself. Bring your own and please make them respectful to students.

Creative protest and mock ceremonies should be exercised at the rally areas, not anywhere near the ceremony.

This protest will use the power of silence and will be 100% non-violent.
If you are looking to cause trouble, stay home.

Saturday, May 12th Schedule:

(please join us for all or part of these events)

__________________________________________________

8:00 a.m. meet at SSU on the stairs of Persons Theater. We will pass out educational flyers and congratulate students

9:00am- First Ceremony: participating students and faculty and respectful peripheral protesters* will stand up silently, and turn our backs, remove caps and bow our heads during the conferral of Sanford Weills degree.**

11:30- Silent Rally at Green Music Center

2:00- Meet again at stairs of Persons Theater to pass out more flyers and congratulations.

3:00- Second Ceremony (we will do the same)*

*= please allow seats to be filled with students, their families and their friends. If there is extra room and you are dressed appropriately to the occasion, you may join the periphery of the ceremony in silence. No signs please.
**= it is unclear as to whether he will receive a degree during the first, second or both ceremonies. Either way, our response will be the same.

__________________________________________________

Parking at SSU is free on graduation day. Please reserve closer spaces for students’ families as many will be elderly.   Click here for parking map.

The most important aspect of this protest is that we contrast honoring the students for their achievements in a tasteful way with hanging our heads in shame that SSU is taking dirty money and putting forth a pariah, who does not deserve any honor, for commencing students to emulate. This will be a very powerful juxtaposition.

Please make your signs in such a way as to honor and respect the students and their friends and families. We suggest that in the spirit of this respect, signs be kept to black and white and use respectful and collegiate language and imagery. Signs and all sound should be kept to the rally areas only–absolutely not anywhere near the ceremony itself. We are committed to peaceful, silent protest.

Note: This information is being conveyed directly from the organizing working group. This donated website only functions as a communication channel for them and for no one else. The working group is made up of many students, faculty and community activists and all information on this site are the fruits of their collective process.

This Wall Street fat cat has given $12 million of his ill-gotten money to SSU and is obviously garnering support and leverage from the Board of Trustees. He has pushed the Green family (the original donors for the music center) out of the board. Where will this big money and influence take us next?

Somber protests in the spirit of quiet shame for SSU were contrasted by congratulations for the students.

We were silent and respectful of the fact that this is still an important commencement for the legitimate students who have achieved their  honors, so we reserved the shame only for the university’s Board of Trustees and any involved administrative staff including SSU President Armiñana and Mr. and Mrs. Weill. There was no heckling or jeering of any kind.

The Shame on SSU Coalition is planning future action to call attention to this ongoing shame and to demand revocation of the honorary degrees bestowed upon the Weills. These banksters will not be welcomed in our community and can not hide the wrongs they have done under a cloak of philanthropic diversion.

Note: This information is being conveyed directly from the organizing working group. This donated website only functions as a communication channel for them and for no one else. The working group is made up of many students, faculty and community activists and all information on this site are the fruits of their collective process.

We have unanimously committed ourselves to non-violence and non-disruption of the SSU graduation ceremonies on May 12th. We are also wholly committed to a silent, respectful, non-disruptive protest against the decision to present Sandy Weill with a “paid-for” honorary degree.

We will wear black as a symbol that we are committed to peace and justice and actively opposed to injustice. Power-broker Sandy Weill is one of the BANKSTERS most directly responsible for the nation’s economic collapse. We stand strongly opposed to honoring him, and his wife Joan, at the SSU graduation ceremony.

We will provide the following request to graduation attendees:

“If you are drowning in student debt or your future job prospects are significantly diminished because of the economic crisis;

if you have lost your home, are in foreclosure, or have seen your rent increase dramatically;

if you oppose the corporatization of public education;

if you oppose the racist aspects of the sub-prime crisis;

or if you oppose the super-wealthy subverting our democracy for their own private gain:

PLEASE JOIN US IN TURNING YOUR BACK ON HONORING THE WEILLS, as they have dis-honored, diminished and destroyed the lives of so many hardworking Americans.”

WE DO NOT PLAN TO HAVE SIGNS, MAKE NOISE, OR CAUSE DISRUPTIONS of any kind during the graduation ceremonies. The simple act of TURNING OUR BACKS on Sandy and Joan Weill are the only actions that will be taken by the “Shame On SSU Coalition”.g

The front page of the Star is running this article about the Day of Shame on SSU protest that has come about as the result of Sanford (Sandy) Weill, the Former CEO of Citigroup being presented with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters for his donation of $12 million to SSU.

The controversy centers around Mr Weill’s key role in the creation of the financial crisis, including the latest revelations about the mushrooming costs of education and student loans.

UPDATED: When first reported we had no plausible explanation for why these papers have been removed with no prior notice. Since that time, reports have come in that still don’t explain the entire matter (see below), so we are awaiting more information.

This was sent at 2:30pm, May 10th to the SSU Senate:

______________________________________

The editor of the Star estimates that 95 percent of newspapers have been removed as of today. This is unacceptable and a shot across the bow of the First Amendment. These so called cleaning efforts that included the Star removal are an affront to free speech on our campus. The Day of Shame is now. Is this some attempt to cover up our controversies? I join with those who believe in freedom of speech to ask that a full accounting of what happened to these papers be made.

Chip McAuley
______________________________________

5/10 5:30pm UPDATE: The coalition has been told that the SSU administration is denying any involvement and the campus police are investigating the matter.

5/10 8pm UPDATE:  The coalition has been given scattered and sometimes conflicting reports regarding the missing issues of the Sonoma State Star. Some reports include personnel in blue SSU shirts removing stacks of them that were later claimed as part of a clean up effort. Witnesses say this was repeated in several locations. Later, after this story was out, a few racks were seen with papers in them once again.

At this time, the disappearances of Star issues from the stands is still mostly unexplained. We will post updates as new information comes to light.

What is even more concerning is the de facto placement of Mr. Weill as a shining example for your graduating students to emulate at the Sonoma State graduation ceremonies. Your President, Mr. Armanina, has obviously been dazzled by the size of Mr. Weill’s checkbook and this honorary degree is his form of payback.

Professor Bliss’ concerns were well described in today’s Press Democrat. Professor Phillips later wrote an excellent piece to be published in the PD. He did not, however, go far enough recounting some of Mr. Weill’s past transactions. For starters, Time Magazine was indeed correct in naming him as one of the 25 people most responsible for the recent financial debacle.

To cite some brief examples from the available media: the merger of Citicorp and Mr. Weill’s Travelers Insurance could not have happened while the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was in place. Mr. Weill convinced Robert Rubin, then Secretary of the Treasury to join with Lawrence Summers and Alan Greenspan to get Congress and the Clinton Administration repeal the act. The repealing of the act, many observers claim for a variety of reasons, was one of the major causes of the financial crisis, or as the media has come to call it, “The Great Recession.” In return, Mr. Rubin was hired by Mr. Weill’s Citicorp as a Vice Chairman and “Senior Advisor” for $10 million per year for 10 years.

Then there was the case of a Citibank analyst, Jack Grubman, who allegedly upgraded a 1999 equity rating on AT&T in exchange for the vote of Michael Armstrong, then AT&T’s chairman and a Citicorp Director, to depose John Reed. Mr. Reed, at the time, was co-head of Citicorp and Mr. Weill was not accustomed to sharing any of the spotlight. Mr. Grubman, coincidentally, was trying to get his twins into an exclusive school in New York, to which they were later admitted. To complete the circle, the school got a $1 million donation from Citicorp, Mr. Reed was gone, and Mr. Weill was now the singular head of Citicorp.

Lastly, turning to the Green Music Center, you may be interested to note that there is no longer any connection between the Music Center and the initial donors, the Green family. There is no representation on the advisory board or any of the other committees. Instead, Mr. Weill or his wife is running the show. So much for local involvement. Good practices and a sense of gratitude and decency would seem to dictate that the Green family, who worked so hard to make the Center a reality and a civic gem, should have at least a token representation on its future direction.

A friend has said that someone like Mr. Weill does not get to where he is without leaving many footprints. This is something to keep in mind when it comes time to award his honorary degree.

Dear President Arminana,

It is with great shame that I am writing this letter to you.  I am an alumna of Sonoma State graduating in June 1975.  At that time, Marjorie Downing Wagner was President and I was extremely active on campus both in the Sociology and Women’s Studies Dept.  At my graduation, I was one of the main speakers, which was a great honor to me.  At that time, I believed I graduated from a College that challenged me academically and possessed a high level of integrity and creativity.  I was an inspired student who went on to San Francisco State University and earned a Masters Degree in Education with an emphasis on rehabilitation.      

I was appalled when I heard that you were awarding Sanford Weill an honorary degree at the graduation this year.  Why was I appalled? Sanford (Sandy) Weill was the driving force in shattering the Glass-Steagall Act, which for decades had prohibited Wall Street investment firms from gambling with their depositors’ money. Its reversal opened the gates for the housing crisis in 2008, the plague of foreclosures devastating our communities, and the economic recession that has stolen our children’s future.

Mr. Weill thus enabled the merger that created Citigroup, a major player in the criminal banking practices thereby unleashed. Given his unquestioned responsibility in this, Time magazine recently included Weill’s name in its list of the “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.”   I cannot understand why you would even consider honoring an individual who has created such pain and misery in our culture and, through his acts, has demonstrated he is not a man of integrity.

To give an honor, such as the one you wish to bestow, on a person who has inflicted so much suffering and destruction on countless lives – including many in this very graduating class – is, in plain words, extremely disgusting to me and is not in line with what I believe a university is all about.  It is important that when one receives awards such as the one you are willing to present they need to earn it through good services to the community and not by giving twelve million dollars as a gift.  In my mind, if it truly was a gift, he would not even want the attention. However, I believe that the reason he might accept it is to believe that his behavior and all that took place has been forgiven.

As a woman, a mother, a grandmother and a graduate of Sonoma State University, I have higher expectations of who I would consider giving an honor to.  There are many other individuals who have given far more to our Sonoma County community that deserve that honor.  For the sake of civility I urge you to reconsider your decision. That is the right thing to do.  In doing that, you are telling the world that Sonoma State University cannot be bought and that we have a high standard of behavior for individuals we believe deserve to be honored.  If not, you are sending the message that money outweighs integrity and service. 

Sincerely yours,

Elaine Beverly Holtz aka Pine

Graduating Class of 1975

In protest of Sandy Weill’s honorary degree – May 12, 2012

(Petaluma 5/6/12) A recently organized coalition of Sonoma State faculty, students and local Occupy activists is calling for a public demonstration of outrage in response to the announcement that former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill will receive an honorary degree at SSU’s graduation ceremony this year. People all over the country are invited to the Sonoma State campus for a “Day of Shame on Sonoma State University.” The protest begins at noon on Saturday, May 12, and does not intend in any way to disrupt graduation proceedings. On the contrary, this is an urgent call to defend the integrity of the ceremony and denounce the unacceptable insult that Mr. Weill’s dishonorable doctorate degree represents.

Sanford (Sandy) Weill was the driving force in shattering the Glass-Steagall Act, which for decades had prohibited Wall Street investment firms from gambling with their depositors’ money. Its reversal opened the gates for the housing crisis in 2008, the plague of foreclosures devastating our communities and the economic recession that has stolen our children’s future. Mr. Weill thus enabled the merger that created Citigroup, a major player in the criminal banking practices thereby unleashed. Given his unquestioned responsibility in this, Time Magazine recently included Weill’s name in its list of the “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.”

A major purveyor of toxic subprime mortgages, Citigroup required $45 billion in government investment and a $300 billion guarantee of its bad assets to avoid bankruptcy; yet Sandy Weill retired an incredibly wealthy man shortly before the “banking collapse he helped engineer” required a tax-payer bail-out. Now Mr. Weill is being rewarded with a degree in Humane Letters for his donation of 12 million of his ill-gotten dollars to complete SSU’s construction of the controversial Green Musical Center. SSU Sociology Professor Peter Phillips asks, “Is this a doctorate honoring anything besides being the largest recent donor to the Green Music Center? It seems to smack of buying the honor instead of earning it.”

In fact, many of the students in the SSU graduating class this year are leaving school saddled with Citigroup student loans, all part of the trillion dollar student loan debt from which graduates across the nation will be struggling for years to escape. The courageous obligation to protest Weill’s honorary degree is made quite clear in graduating SSU student Melanie Sanders’ words: “I must now call my grandma and explain that I will be protesting at my graduation ceremony. I am personally offended that he will be at my graduation and receiving a degree.”

Many attribute this offensive gesture to the stewardship of SSU President Ruben Armiñana. They argue that, by honoring a man who, in the process of amassing his fortune, has inflicted so much suffering and destruction on countless lives – including many in this very graduating class – Armiñana has betrayed the integrity of the California State University system and its mission. The “Day of Shame on Sonoma State University” is an urgent action organized to give people an opportunity to demonstrate their outrage and publicly denounce the arrogance, greed and fraud that has inverted our social contract and hi-jacked the American Dream as the entitlement of the few, at the expense of the many.

According to organizer Shepherd Bliss, “Seating for 4,000 guests will be set up to accommodate those wanting to be present for 1000 graduates in the morning and another 1000 in the afternoon. This would be an important audience to educate and mobilize, helping them connect the necessary dots between a prominent one percenter and his victims.”

The “Day of Shame on Sonoma State University” starts at noon on the SSU campus at 1801 East Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, on May 12, 2012. Please respect our commitment to non-violent assembly and protect the integrity of this graduation ceremony, deploying your creativity to inform and articulate compassionate resistance, and honoring the dignity of this treasured moment for students and their families by dressing appropriately in black.

For more extensive information on Sandy Weill’s background and the corporitization of SSU, visit:

http://shameonssu.org/

For interviews and additional information, contact:

Shepherd Bliss

707-829-8185

3sb@comcast.net

Susan Lamont

707-889-3021

peacenik@sonic.net

Melanie Sanders

707-228-6658

3belly@gmail.com

Peter Phillips

707-874-2695

peter.phillips@sonoma.edu

To sign a petition urging the CSU Board of Trustees to revoke Sandy Weill’s dishonorable degree:

http://shameonssu.org/get-involved/

________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Day of Shame Organizing Coalition

MEDIA CONTACT: John Bertucci

707-775-8617

jobertu@gmail.com